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Literary formscomedy UNIT II
Definition of Comedy • Comedy is generally defined as a literary work that is written to amuse or entertain a reader. In a comedy, characters can certainly suffer misfortune, but they are typically comedic situations with positive outcomes. Not all examples of comedy as a literary device are funny. However, its light-hearted treatment of plot and tone does allow a reader and/or audience to release emotion and tension as a satisfying escape from the mundanity of life or tragic circumstances, with the potential of gaining insight into humanity and the self.
Elements of Comedy in Literature • Substance: It is text, words, sentences, phrases, or dialogues that are used in comedy. • Expression and Communication: It is the communicative ability of the actors and the persons in question. • Originality: It means the nature of jokes and content. • Timing and Rhythm: It is the situation and the use of jokes and fun to suit the purpose. • Setting: It means where you perform and how you perform in a specific situation.
Elements of Shakespearean Comedy • Mistaken Identity and/or Misconceptions: It means mistaken identity or misconception about others such as happens in As You Like It or Twelfth Nightregarding Rosalind and Viola. • Reason versus Emotion: It means using emotions or reason such as in A Midsummer Night’s Dreamand the character of Hermia. • Fate and the Fantastical: It means using human beings as playthings such as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream where Puck and Oberon play with human beings. • Idyllic Settings: It means the use of idyllic situations such as in As You Like It where there is the Forest of Arden and the city of Athens in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. • Separation and Reconciliation: It happens in Love’s Labour Lost with Berowne and Rosaline or in Much Ado About Nothing such as with Benedick and Beatrice. • Happy Endings: These situations happen in As You Like It with Duke Frederick.
Types of Comedy • Situational Comedy: It is also called a sitcom and comprises a comedy play and characters playing episodes after episodes. • Romantic Comedy: It is a sub-genre of comedy comprising lighthearted themes and humorous plots. • Physical Comedy (Slapstick): Also called slapstick, it is a physical comedy comprising body movements, clowning, and making faces. • Dark Comedy (Gallows humor): Also called dark humor, black humor, or black comedy, dark comedy makes heavy or grave subjects and themes look lighter through fun and comic remarks. • Farce: This comedy uses exaggeration of the situation. • Spoof or Parody: This comedy uses imitation to ridicule or ironize life events. • Satire: Satire ridicules vices, follies, and foibles with the purpose to correct them. • Dramatic Irony: Its objective is to use irony through drama or dramatic situations. • Tragicomedy: Its objective is to use the mixture of tragedy and comedy to make tragic moments seem lighter.
FARCE • A farce is a literary genre and type of comedy that makes use of highly exaggerated and funny situations aimed at entertaining the audience. • Farce is also a subcategory of dramatic comedy, which is different from other forms of comedy as it only aims at making the audience laugh. • It uses elements like physical humor, deliberate absurdity, bawdy jokes, and drunkenness just to make people laugh. We often see one‑dimensional characters in ludicrous situations in farces.
EXAMPLES FOR FARCE • Example #1: The Importance of Being Earnest (By Oscar Wilde) • Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Importance of Being Earnest, is one of the best verbal farces. Just like a typical farce that contains basic elements, such as mockery of the upper class, disgraceful physical humor, absurdity, and mistaken identities, this novel also demonstrates these features of a farce. • The most absurd thing in tale is the fact that Miss Prism commits a blunder by leaving her manuscript in the pram, and puts her child into her handbag.
EXAMPLES FOR FARCE • Example #2: The Taming of the Shrew (By William Shakespeare) • In Shakespeare’s play, The Taming of the Shrew, the farcical elements are manifested in terms of characters, plot, and particularly the writing style. The play contains stereotype characters that are typically farcical in nature, such as Katherine is an excellent instance of the farcical character. Although Katherina (Kate) is a stereotype and a boisterous shrew, Shakespeare portrays her as an individual needing sympathy, because Bianca is the favorite child of her father, Baptista.
SENTIMENTAL COMEDY • Sentimental Comedy | Definition and Characteristics • Introduction • In the 1800s, in Britain, a new form of drama emerged, known as The Sentimental Comedy of 18th century was, in fact, a reaction against the Comedy of Manners which was popular during the Restoration Period. • The Comedy of Manners was characterized by light-hearted fun, rude and severe dialogues. The aim of the writers of Comedy of Manners was to make fun of holy characters.
Sentimental Comedy Characteristics • Humour was replaced by pathos and humorous situations in pathetic situations. • Writers introduced characters from the middle-class life characterized by virtue without any gain of vice in them. • The writers of Sentimental Comedy were moralists and wanted to teach morals through the medium of their plays. • The Sentimental Comedies were really moral comedies and a sense of morality and virtue governed them from beginning to end. • The dialogues were neither severe nor sparkling.
Sentimental Comedy Characteristics • It remained popular for nearly half a century. • It drove out genuine comedy from the English Stage. • It provided moral lectures in place of entertainment. • It awakened tears instead of laughter. • It was characterized by emotions of pity and sympathy and lacked wit or humour. • It was serious from beginning to end and was entirely removed from the realities of life. • Its characters were not real men and women, but the production of minds of playwrights. • The keen observations and realistic touches which had always brightened the earlier comedy completely disappeared.
EXAMPLES OF SENTIMENTAL COMEDY • Love’s Last Shift by Colley Cibber • The Constant Couple by George Farquhar • The Conscious Lovers by Richard Steele • She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith • The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
MELODRAMA • Melodrama is a subgenre of drama, which is an exaggerated form of this genre. Melodramas deal with sensational and romantic topics that appeal to the emotions of the common audience. Originally, it made use of melody and music, while modern melodramas may not contain any music at all. In fact, a melodrama gives preference to a detailed characterization where characters are simply drawn, one-dimensional, or stereotyped. Typically, melodrama uses stock characters including a heroes, heroines, and villains.
FUNCTION OF MELODRAMA • Melodrama is an exaggerated form of drama, where authors enhance the storylines in order to tug the heartstrings of the audience. • Typically, these types of dramas focus on sensational plots that revolve around tragedy, unrequited love, loss, or heightened emotion; featuring long-suffering protagonists, especially females, attempting in vain to overcome impossible odds. • Its purpose is to play on the feelings and emotions of the audience. We see the use of melodramatic plots more often in films, theater, television, radio, cartoons, and comics.
EXAMPLES OF MELODRAMA • Pygmalion by Jean Jacques Rousseau, George Bernard Shaw • Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain • The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins • Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas • Twilight by Stephenie Meyer • All That Heaven Allows by Douglas Sirk
Shakespeare’s Comedies • All’s Well That Ends Well • As You Like It • The Comedy of Errors • Love’s Labour’s Lost • Measure for Measure • The Merchant of Venice • The Merry Wives of Windsor • A Midsummer Night’s Dream • Much Ado About Nothing • The Taming of the Shrew • The Tempest • Twelfth Night • The Two Gentlemen of Verona • The Winter’s Tale
